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Thursday, September 22, 2011

Adventures in Amateur Game Design, part 12: Mage Abilities

100% not the aesthetic I'm going for, but just so cool. I love the Black Mage image search results.

The mage abilities was probably the easiest to come up with. It turns out that the limitless possibilities of magic make it easier to design. I decided to change the general philosophy of the trees a bit to open up more design options. The pet tree became the summoning tree. Enhancement is going to have a melee mage type spin to it also. I've also had some recent revelations that will allow me to squeeze those cool support spells into the trees without making them feel like they're taking the place of a good combat spell.

Arcane

Main Spec Ability: Explosion - a damaging AOE explosion that occurs at range.

In no particular order:

Blinding Light

Dazzling Wall

Magic Missile

Illusion

Slow - slows a target

Teleport - a personal teleport

Telekinesis - a sustained telekinesis (not fast)

Exploding Bead - a time delay damage spell

Cut - a magical slice through the air

Mage Hand - an instant telekinesis (upgradable to be an attack)

Summoning

Main Spec Ability: Summon Companion - a permanent, magically enhanced companion. Can be dismissed and resummoned if killed.

Summon Demon - temporary demon assistant

Summon Golem - temporary golem (tanky)

Summon Minor Architecture

Floating Disc - a floating disc, usable for transport

Conjure Food and Water

Mend Ally - heals a summoned ally

Dancing Sword - a sword appears to attack on behalf of the caster

Spike - fires spikes

Summon Clothes - upgradable to bind enemies

10th ability

Enhancement - Many of the abilities start as personal buffs but can be upgraded to be castable on others. Some start as castable on others.